I’ve come up with something I like to call the “Effort:Reward ratio”. It’s something which we all do, but which affects us in numerous ways, from work to our personal lives. Simply put, the effort:reward ratio asks us to examine how much effort we put in to something, versus the amount of reward we get out of it. Sounds pretty simple, right? But this simple ratio gets to the heart of what we find enjoyable, whether we are getting everything out of our lives that we want, and can even guide our everyday options. In this post, I’ll talk you through this amazing ratio, and the secrets it can uncover.

I first conceptualised this ratio when preparing some food to eat. I am a quick eater; food disappears very quickly when it is in front of me. As a result, this means I think a lot about the effort I put into food. If it’s going to take me a lot of effort to make some food that might last all of 5 seconds on my plate, why wouldn’t I spend less time making food and regaining more time in my day? A classic example: the toasted sandwich. I love a good sandwich, but sometimes I really can’t be bothered for the effort to toast it. Yes, it might taste slightly better toasted – but I am really going to remember that? Instead, I could use that five minutes to meditate, or read, or do anything else with my day. Of course, this ratio can bite you – after all, it takes minimal effort to open a pack of unhealthy food and eat it, to great immediate reward. In this instance of food, I am thinking about the long-term rewards of healthy eating, and the effort required to get to certain levels there. This is also why I have shifted to eating more vegetarian meals: yes, meat can be tasty. But for a fraction of the time, I can use chickpeas or beans and get protein that way. Winner winner chickpea dinner.

Of course, the ratio encourages us to think about our lives outside of this rather narrow-minded view of the daily. Everything in life takes some level of effort, and will yield some level of reward (though these may not be explicitly obvious, or more abstract). Life is all about finding the right balance between these levels of effort and reward. This pairs nicely with the Pareto Principle, which says that 80% of results come from doing 20% of the work. Basically, 20% of your work results in 80% of your output. In Academia, for example, a lecturer is expected to teach, research, and do some level of service. Of those things, only research leads to publications which are what most jobs base their hiring on. Depending on whether you find researching or writing easier, either of those options, accounting for 20% of your work output, lead to 80% of your results in furthering your career. The effort:reward ratio, then, says spend more time focusing your effort on that work, for the most reward.

How does the effort:reward ratio play out in your life? Let me know in the comments below.